Summer Memories

If you don't already know, Elisa has an affinity for girly dresses and she owns a few....when dresses her in the morning, she often refuses anything but her favorite dresses....the pouffier, the better!

In her non-princess moments, Elisa's favorite game is to dump garbage out of the garbage can in the office and stand in it. In case it is not obvious, she is also saying "Roar. I'm a monster!"


Tallan and Elisa's favorite game after the bath is to be wrapped up tight in towels. We call them little buritos and they love it. "I want to be a burrito! BURRITO!!"

On the first weekend of July (before the weather turned to rain for weeks), we took a drive out to Bridal Falls waterpark. It was about an hour's drive, but well worth it! It was so much fun for the kids, and an excuse for Mike to get back to one of his childhood favorite destinations! Tallan was a pro going down the slides all by himself!





Elisa didn't look very happy, but she loved the waterpark. She was running back up to the slides over and over and shouted "Again, Again!" every time she got out of the water.


July also brought our summer vacation which started off on the island. And lucky for us some deer came to visit. Tallan shouted from grandma's livingroom, "look there's a deer! two deer!" Apparently they hadn't been there at all until he showed up. Further proof what a special little man he is. Elisa got a chance to feed apples to the deer, too :)

We also took a trip out to Papa Joe's cabin where Tallan got to swing on a tire swing! I also gave it a whirl, but the tree and the rope didn't think it was such a good idea.

Elisa found a tricycle just like the one we have at home, and got to play with bubbles that Nana bought for her (and Tallan of course).


Tallan found this really need walking bike and it didn't take him long to figure it out :)

Then off to the boat to catch some fish and crab for dinner!

And Tallan ends up catching the only fish of the day :)

But that wasn't Tallan's favorite fish. He loved catching fry off the dock with Daddy. They ended up with a bucket full! Fearless Tallan was grabbing them from the bucket with bare hands.

And threatening to eat them live...or maybe he was just giving them kisses. Yes. Probably just kisses.


Then at Elisa's birthday dinner, Tallan and Elisa got to pick fresh raspberries from Nana and Papa's backyard. Yum!


I guess Tallan got one that was still a bit tart...


Then inside for Elisa's birthday party! Nana made her a caterpillar cake to go with her favorite book, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."

She also loved the paper noise makers. Dollar store heaven :)

And although Mike hates crowds, we did manage to go to the PNE this year. It was packed! We got in at a special rate of $5 per adult (free for the kids), but parking was $25! The lots were all full so we ended up parking at someone's house. We agreed to pay the $25 to an asian woman to jumped on what appeared to be a toddler bike and rode down the street on it. We followed her to an alley that was about 5 blocks or so away from the fair. All in all, even with the cheap entrance fee, we spent a whopping $100!! How did that happen???

But Tallan was in love with the farm animals and I had to be fond of this llama's haircut!

I got a bit tired of pushing Tallan around, so Elisa took over for a bit. For some reason, Tallan was concerned.

Tallan had to climb up quite a high fence in order to pet this horse's butt.

But being a monkey and climbing things is what he likes most!

He was so excited about the animals! A cuter face I have not seen :)

And Elisa did a pretty dance to show off her dress (yes, one that she picked out herself for the occassion).


On one sunny Thursday near the end of July a few of our friends got together at a park. Tallan fell in love with Daneil (a friend's daughter) - who was 10 years old and considerably taller than he was. He held her hand and took her all around the park with the biggest smile on his face.


I think he might have been trying to carry her home on his back.... :)

When Daddy came home that night, he ran up to him and said "Daddy, I met this girl at the park I really liked and I wanted to bring her home!" A ladies' man already!

But luckily, he still had some love left for his sister who he helped line up for face painting with.

We also took a trip to the Dinosaur exhibit at Science World which was very cool, but far too scary for Elisa. She screamed and cried so I stayed with her in the kids play area for most of the visit. They both enjoyed the play area as it had lots to do!


Caribou park had some fun summer activities this year and we were able to get out faces painted twice this summer! First Tallan was a lion, and this time he got to be a tiger! That's one proud tiger!


I was cooking dinner one day and not paying enough attention to my busy little beavers. When I turned around and discovered this project, I was told they were building a dam by putting straws into one of my Crocs. They sure are creative with play - I have to give them that!


They may be best friends, but for some reason Tallan still tries to keep Elisa quiet.

Speaking of our little trouble and mess-maker....she has perfected the innocent face.

And Daddy always has a knack for finding moments like these...

The Burnaby Heritage Museum is free all year because it's their 40th anniversary so we decided to give it a try. I was also able to get some free carousel ride coupons so we headed off. The carousel was really fast! And although there wasn't much to do, Tallan and his friend Charlotte seemed to busy themselves just running on the grass and playing with the water fountain. We also found this cow made of plants! Also note I am wearing in cool birthday jean capris - I love them!

Tallan immediately wanted to do only 2 things with this cow. 1) Ring its bell.

2) and Milk it.

Fortunately, Elisa didn't want to be a part of it.

And again, we have our princess diva in a beautiful dress doing us a little dance. That girl puts on quite a show!

Here's Tallan playing his new favorite game, plants vs zombies.

Elisa helps Tallan on his tricycle so mommy can keep sitting on the stairs :)

And more pics of my little waterpark friends :) They were in dressy clothes because we were going to the Aquarium while waiting for Daddy to get off work - we didn't intend on going to the spray park. BUT, because we were there and had spare clothes in the trunk - they jumped in :)



My friend Renee introduced us to the big playground at Central Park last week and we had such a blast. Her daughter, Charlotte, was in Tallan's old preschool. Charlotte's little sister Amelia is just a month younger than Elisa :) This disc swing that fit all 4 of them sure got a lot of laughs!